Bloodied Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: Is This the Real Face of Terrorism?

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is pictured with his hands up, bloodied and targeted by a sniper’s laser scope.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the alleged Boston Marathon bomber, is captured in horrific new Massachusetts police photos taken at the time of his capture. He’s shown bloodied and targeted by a sniper’s laser scope as he surrenders surrounded by heavily armed police.

The photos are the latest reaction to a Rolling Stone magazine cover photo that critics claim portrays the bombing suspect like a rock star.

Four people were killed dozens of others were wounded, after two bombs exploded near the finish line of the storied marathon. Tsarnaev’s brother, who was also suspected in the bombing, was also killed as he attempted to flee police.

The uproar over the magazine is still roiling. CVS pharmacies announced that it is pulling the magazine from its store shelves in protest over the cover. It joins several other retailers that have done the same.

Here’s What Sgt. Murphy Had to Say: “As a professional law-enforcement officer of 25 years, I believe that the image that was portrayed by Rolling Stone magazine was an insult to any person who has every worn a uniform of any color or any police organization or military branch, and the family members who have ever lost a loved one serving in the line of duty. The truth is that glamorizing the face of terror is not just insulting to the family members of those killed in the line of duty, it also could be an incentive to those who may be unstable to do something to get their face on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. I hope that the people who see these images will know that this was real. It was as real as it gets. This may have played out as a television show, but this was not a television show. Officer Dick Donohue almost gave his life. Officer Sean Collier did give his life. These were real people, with real lives, with real families. And to have this cover dropped into Boston was hurtful to their memories and their families. I know from first-hand conversations that this Rolling Stone cover has kept many of them up—again. It’s irritated the wounds that will never heal—again. There is nothing glamorous in bringing more pain to a grieving family. Photography is very simple, it’s very basic. It brings us back to the cave. An image like this on the cover of Rolling Stone, we see it instantly as being wrong. What Rolling Stone did was wrong. This guy is evil. This is the real Boston bomber. Not someone fluffed and buffed for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.”

The police images, first published by Boston magazine on Thursday (July 18), were released by Massachusetts State Police photographer Sgt. Sean Murphy without authorization.

Murphy told the magazine that he was so upset by the cover he thought it was necessary to counter the message that it conveys with images from Tsarnaev’s capture. He said the Rolling Stone cover is “both dangerous and insulting to the victims.”

“Murphy wants the world to know that the Tsarnaev in the photos he took that night, defeated and barely alive, with the red dots of sniper rifles lighting up his forehead—is the real face of terrorism,” Boston magazine reported.

The release of the photographs was unauthorized, according to a Massachusetts State Police spokesman. Murphy was suspended after the photos were published and may face disciplinary action, according to Boston magazine.

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About The Author

TheImproper Staff

Keith Girard is Editor and Publisher of TheImproper, New York City’s cutting edge arts, entertainment pop culture and lifestyle Web magazine. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of Billboard magazine and a reporter for the Washington Post among other media positions.